NCAC Holds Virtual Meeting With Creative Industry Stakeholders, Bangladesh High Commission, Others

Oru Leonard
In a bid to ascertain the impact of Coronavirus pandemic on the Nigeria Creative industry and to set an agenda, the National Council for Arts and Culture on Thursday, May 14, 2020, held a virtual meeting with creative industry players to ascertain the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the Nigeria Creative Industry, and to set an agenda.

The meeting themed, “Agenda Setting For The Nigeria Creative Industry – COVID-19: Impact on Nigeria’s Creative Industry”, was chaired by the Director General, NCAC, Runsewe Olusegun and had in attendance several key players in the creative industry, the media and other dignitaries including His Excellency MD. Shameem Ahsan, the Bangladesh High Commissioner to Nigeria.

In his opening speech, the Guest Speaker, Mr Israel Eboh, President, National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), noted that COVID-19 has disrupted every aspect of life and the creative sector is the most hit, as Arts’ creation requires an audience to be commercially viable.

He also noted that the sector is greatly impacted, particularly for practitioners who earn when they perform, noting however, that it is important to take advantage of the pandemic to enhance the industry.

He said that digitalizing the craft has become absolutely necessary. “Is it possible that the performing art will continue to create wealth, yes it is possible”, he said. “The pandemic has challenged us to move beyond the way we have operated before now, where we believe that we must gather in a larger crowd to perform our art. We must find new ways, and ways to take our arts to the people, our arts should be relevant”.

Eboh who expressed disappointment that there is no support for the industry in Nigeria, advised the industry stakeholders to ensure that after the pandemic the industry will still exist, and urged them to agitate for bailouts in the form of grants rather than loans.

He then called for collaboration among those in the sector, so as to identify those who can take up the business, and those who can market to achieve effective results.

The Director General, NCAC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, in his keynote remarks, noted that the meeting became important due to the impact of the Coronavirus on the industry especially.

Runsewe added that there is a need to develop a database of all the creatives, and assured that the NCAC is developing a robust report that will show what happened to the industry, before, during and after COVID-19 and will also address the issue of databases, said that the sector, although viable, has not been given the lifeline needed.

Speaking, the Bangladesh High Commissioner, Md. Shameem Ahsan, said that COVID-19 has put the industry in a terrible position, urging however, that priority should not get lost.

H.E. Shameem expressed the willingness of Bangladesh to remain a party to all the good initiatives of the NCAC.

Also speaking, Fred Amata, a Nigerian actor, producer and director, called for unity of the arts.

Media practitioners also urged the Federal Government not to forget the Media and staff in various intervention schemes.

Participants were unanimous in calling for regular virtual meetings by NCAC to get a framework for the post Covid- 19 era.